Michael Townshend, Executive Director of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline project, has been honoured by HE Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, with one of Azerbaijan’s most prestigious state decorations – The Order of Honour, for his outstanding contribution to the successful implementation of the BTC oil export pipeline project.
David Woodward, BP’s Associate President in Azerbaijan, says: “This state award is in recognition of the tremendous job done by Michael and the entire BTC team under his direction. We in BP are extremely pleased today to hear that Michael’s leadership of the BTC project during the last five years, which recently culminated in the first tanker lifting from Ceyhan, has been recognised at the highest level and I would like to take this opportunity to thank President Aliyev for honouring the BTC Executive Director with Azerbaijan’s state decoration.”
With the sail away of the first tanker from Ceyhan on June 4 and successful completion of BTC – a remarkable delivery of a truly world-class project, Michael Townshend will be leaving Azerbaijan at the end of June to take on a new assignment elsewhere in BP.
BP is pleased to announce Michael Townshend’s successor - Rashid Javanshir. This new appointment makes Rashid a member of the BP Azerbaijan senior leadership team with overall responsibility for managing the company’s integrated onshore oil and gas receiving, processing and export operations across Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey in addition to holding the BTC Chief Executive Officer role.
Rashid, an internationally-recognised scientist and a member of Azerbaijan’s National Academy of Science, is re-joining BP Azerbaijan after holding senior positions in BP UK over the past five years including his latest position as a Vice-President in Aberdeen, where he was responsible for BP's Southern North Sea business since 2003.
"I am very pleased to welcome Rashid back to Baku and to my leadership team. With his international experience and local knowledge it is great to have him in BP Azerbaijan to lead the operations, which we believe will place this country, once more, on the global oil stage and deliver major benefits to this country and its people in the years ahead", says Mr Woodward.
Tamam Bayatly at BP’s Press Office in Baku, telephone: 994 (0) 12 599 4557